FBI: New $10,000 reward if you report people who fire lasers at airplanes

The practice is on the rise: Feds recorded nearly 4,000 such incidents in 2013.

For years now, we’ve been reporting on people who fire high-intensity laser pointers at flying aircraft. In March 2012, a 19-year-old Californian pleaded guilty to aiming a laser pointer at a private aircraft and a police helicopter and was later sentenced to 30 months in prison.

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On Tuesday, the FBI announced a new program that offers a $10,000 reward “for information leading to the arrest of any individual who intentionally aims a laser at an aircraft.”

The program is set to run for the next 60 days in FBI field offices where “laser strikes against aircraft are prevalent.” Those cities include Albuquerque, Chicago, Cleveland, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Sacramento, San Antonio, San Juan (Puerto Rico), and the Washington Field Office.

“Aiming a laser pointer at an aircraft is a serious matter and a violation of federal law,” said Ron Hosko, assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division, in a statement. “It is important that people understand that this is a criminal act with potentially deadly repercussions.”

According to the FBI and the Federal Aviation Administration, since 2005, there has been “a more than 1,000 percent increase in the number of incidents with these devices."

In 2013, 3,960 incidents were reported, including 35 incidents as of December 2013 in which the pilots required medical attention.

Promoted Comments

As usual, throwing these idiots in jail is probably a poor answer; I'd rather see a thousand hours community service. But before the 500 "does the punishment really fit the crime?" comments - it's a lot easier than you think to manage to sweep the beam across the cockpit windows, and it messes with vision badly farther away than you might think, usually when the aircraft is in a critical flight phase.

123 Reader Comments

As usual, throwing these idiots in jail is probably a poor answer; I'd rather see a thousand hours community service. But before the 500 "does the punishment really fit the crime?" comments - it's a lot easier than you think to manage to sweep the beam across the cockpit windows, and it messes with vision badly farther away than you might think, usually when the aircraft is in a critical flight phase.

According to the FBI and the Federal Aviation Administration, since 2005, there has been “a more than 1,000 percent increase in the number of incidents with these devices."

I wonder if this is due to greater availability of these kinds of lasers or if the practice is just becoming more popular?

I really can't fathom the motivation for shining a laser at an aircraft. What makes it fun or interesting? Is there some sense of challenge in hitting the vehicle? Or are people actually deliberately trying to blind pilots?

It would be nice if the author could explain to ignorants like me, what does this to a plane? What kind of lasers are we talking about here? Do they mean those pen lasers pointers?

It causes temporary blindness for the pilot, while landing the airplane which is the most likely time for an aircraft to crash. It is theoretically possible to cause permanent blindness as well, depending how powerful the laser pointer is.

And yeah, pen lasers. Some are more powerful than others.

If the plane is on autopilot it's no problem at all. But there is no way for the guy with a laser pointer to know if the plane is on autopilot.

The green ones can be worse, but if they're actual class IIIa pointers, no worse than red. The problem is that people import higher power stuff from China that has a bad label, or has a filter they can remove to turn it into a higher powered device.

Now, this is not to discount the problem of flash blindness, which can definitely be an issue to an airplane's cockpit staff... but at the distances we're talking about with planes, even a higher powered laser is probably not carrying enough energy to cause permanent eye damage.

You can (and are strongly recommended to, if working with anything even slightly punchy) get laser-safety glasses that will attenuate the hell out of whatever frequency band your lasers of choice are in, while leaving your vision otherwise adequate. Some of the common ones are even cheap; but if chosen correctly they are quite effective against anything that isn't alarmingly powerful(good idea to wear while the cutting laser is in use? Yes. Will resist the cutting laser? Maybe long enough for you to scream.)

Obviously, of course, the number of bands you can simultaneously protect yourself against before you get into the realm just going in blind is limited.

If the strikes are overwhelmingly of a given color, prevention might be more sensible than chasing every last idiot who decides to do something stupid with an overwhelmingly common device. If they aren't, it becomes much less practical to protect against them all.

You can (and are strongly recommended to, if working with anything even slightly punchy) get laser-safety glasses that will attenuate the hell out of whatever frequency band your lasers of choice are in, while leaving your vision otherwise adequate. Some of the common ones are even cheap; but if chosen correctly they are quite effective against anything that isn't alarmingly powerful(good idea to wear while the cutting laser is in use? Yes. Will resist the cutting laser? Maybe long enough for you to scream.)

Obviously, of course, the number of bands you can simultaneously protect yourself against before you get into the realm just going in blind is limited.

If the strikes are overwhelmingly of a given color, prevention might be more sensible than chasing every last idiot who decides to do something stupid with an overwhelmingly common device. If they aren't, it becomes much less practical to protect against them all.

I would posit that the vast majority of the stupid here happens with red or green lasers, simply because blue are still fairly expensive and people who have taken the time to obtain one understand how powerful they are.

red & green are what you see in presentations. Green carries further, and it's worse for night vision than red so that would be the one I'd be more worried about, personally.

It would be nice if the author could explain to ignorants like me, what does this to a plane? What kind of lasers are we talking about here? Do they mean those pen lasers pointers?

Imagine the cockpit turning blinding red all inside. You can't see anything due to this, and if you try, run the risk of eye damage.

What kind of lasers do this? You mean someone in the ground point a laser and hitting exactly the pilots eye?

Doesn't that sound a bit ridiculous?

Is this really so dangerous? Stupid yes, but dangerous? You would need to be very close to the landing plane to achieve this.

Also, what if the pilot has sunglasses? Or if this is so bad, airplanes can make their glass darker or wait... most planes can land on autopilot anyway.

I cannot potentially imagine what kind of powerful laser would do this, and someone would have to be in the airport or amazingly close to achieve this, if they do I suspect they have criminal intentions and some laser would be the less effective weapon.

Powerful lasers of this kind are easy to acquire, and by the time it reaches an airplane or helicopter, is much wider than a dot. Don't forget the diffraction of the windows.

As usual, throwing these idiots in jail is probably a poor answer; I'd rather see a thousand hours community service. But before the 500 "does the punishment really fit the crime?" comments - it's a lot easier than you think to manage to sweep the beam across the cockpit windows, and it messes with vision badly farther away than you might think, usually when the aircraft is in a critical flight phase.

I'd be happy with capital punishment. Or at least charge them with attempted murder, in the case of an airplane.

If a plane did crash and someone (or more) died, then it's upped to manslaughter or murder - quite likely murder because deliberate pointing at an airplane can be considered malicious intent.

Nevermind the person who did it being mired in tons of civil suits for injuries.

That $10,000 fine looks cheap compared to several felonies and civil court cases that have to be defended against.

I suspect a huge mirror pointing sun to the cockpit is far more dangerous and easier to achieve.

who uses a laser on faraway things during the day? that's no fun because you can't see anything.

the real problem is when people do this at night. the combination of distance and glass/plexiglass window means the whole cockpit gets lit up really bright which ruins the pilot's night vision, is extremely distracting, and could potentially cause eye damage.

I cannot potentially imagine what kind of powerful laser would do this, and someone would have to be in the airport or amazingly close to achieve this, if they do I suspect they have criminal intentions and some laser would be the less effective weapon.

Plenty enough to cause temporary vision problems if someone deliberately shines it in your eye. The range is tens of miles. Also, that laser passes all safety regulations and has filters to reduce eye damage. There are cheaper lasers that do not have the safety filters and you can easily buy one on ebay.

That $10,000 fine looks cheap compared to several felonies and civil court cases that have to be defended against.

It's not a $10,000 fine. It's $10,000 *reward* to anyone who reports the perpetrator.

The only person who has been convicted of pointing a laser at an aircraft was sentenced to 30 months in jail. It happens all the time but nobody is ever caught, even though there have been attempts. You can see the laser so you have a rough idea where it came from... but even if you get a photo of the bedroom window it came out of, the person inside is going to say they didn't do it, which will hold up in court.

The only person who has been convicted of pointing a laser at an aircraft was sentenced to 30 months in jail. It happens all the time but nobody is ever caught, even though there have been attempts. You can see the laser so you have a rough idea where it came from... but even if you get a photo of the bedroom window it came out of, the person inside is going to say they didn't do it, which will hold up in court.

people have been caught in the act - there's at least one youtube video of some idiot getting busted in his yard because someone called it in and the cops just followed the incredibly obvious glowing line in the sky back to its source.

Lasers are a blast to play with. Burn paper, write things on toast, entertain yourself and animals, and so on.

But there's no benefit in randomly lasing planes, and a huge downside. If you need to do it for research, I'm sure you could arrange with the FAA (or whoever) to lase planes in a controlled manner. If you just want to try and put a dot on a plane for some reason, buy a red dot sight and use that instead.

It would be nice if the author could explain to ignorants like me, what does this to a plane? What kind of lasers are we talking about here? Do they mean those pen lasers pointers?

It causes temporary blindness for the pilot, while landing the airplane which is the most likely time for an aircraft to crash. It is theoretically possible to cause permanent blindness as well, depending how powerful the laser pointer is.

And yeah, pen lasers. Some are more powerful than others.

If the plane is on autopilot it's no problem at all. But there is no way for the guy with a laser pointer to know if the plane is on autopilot.

I see, pen lasers, but how much is the distance of those things? I still fail to imagine how someone would pull this off from the ground. I had something like this point at me before, it seems idiots have fun pointing at stuff with the light, but I cannot imagine how it would be dangerous. Unless you are really close to it.

I would imagine lasers on gun sights are more dangerous.

Your imagination is apparently not good enough. The article notes:In 2013, 3,960 incidents were reported, including 35 incidents as of December 2013 in which the pilots required medical attention.

So, yes, this is a real problem. Largely because people don't understand how powerful their "toys" are.

The dimmest led can seem blindingly bright when you've been sitting in the dark for 30+ minutes.

I can't imagine a laser light reflecting and refracting off a cockpit window.

I don't get how some people here can't see how this can be harmful, after thinking about it for more than a few seconds.

Also keep in mind lasers spread out. The farther out the beam goes, the wider it gets. It's not hard to imagine how this large beam could fill a pilots field of vision, that's been sitting in the dark for hours, and cause temporary blindness.

Can't someone like DARPA invent a coating to put on the pilot's windows to protect them from the laser light? Does a protective coating already exist?

Laser pointers are visible light. Any such coating is going to interfere with the pilot's vision.

And yes, there's such a coating, sort of. Bombers used to (and still might) carry metal roll-down shields for their cockpit windows, for use when dropping a nuclear bomb so the pilots won't be blinded.